Data, data everywhere but with new regulation coming to Europe soon, should the online travel industry be worried?

On a day when the cyber attack on UK-based media and communications company TalkTalk dominated headlines in the UK, Alastair Barter, Senior Policy Officer at the UK Information Commissioner's Office took to an EyeforTravel conference podium in London to talk about privacy. 

In virtually every session over the course of the two-day Connected Traveller conference last week, the words ‘big’ and ‘customer data’ came up time and again. The focus: how to capture it, harness it, store it and use it to deliver more personalised, relevant offers to consumers for commercial gain. With the incidental generation of data from downloads of apps and services today, and new developments in technology including everything from wearables to the Internet of Things, there is more data around today than ever before. An industry by Swedish tech company Ericsson, for example, estimates that by 2020, 50 billion devices, including cars, lights toilets, baby thermometers and more, will be networked.

However, with regulation due to come into force in Europe in early 2016 that will strengthen the rights of consumers and require organisations to work harder to justify how they use customer data, there is growing pressure for firms to reassess their data and privacy policies.>

Paying devil’s advocate was chairman of the session Paul Berney, Co-Founder of mobile marketing strategy firm mcCordis. He wondered whether consumers actually care what is done with their data today; after all, many people don’t bother to read terms and conditions, and many seem comfortable posting user generated content on numerous public forums.

I don’t believe there is a slide towards no privacy at all

Alastair Barter, Senior Policy Officer, UK Information Commissioner's Office

But Barter was quick to stress that privacy has and always will be an issue of public consciousness. “I don’t believe there is a slide towards no privacy at all,” he says, because while the technical measurements of data protection may be dull, everybody has a threshold, and an understanding of privacy. “That’s an important frontier”.

Privacy concerns not new

From the recent outcry over the compromise of millions of TalkTalk customers’ data to the high profile expose by whistleblower Edward Snowden and the post office espionage scandal of 1844 privacy concerns aren’t new; and they aren’t going away. Indeed, there is a raft of research, warns Barter, by both regulators and private companies that points to the fact that 85% of consumers today are concerned about how their data is being used and/or sold on.

According to Barter, in the UK complaints about nuisance calls and unsolicited text messages reached around 300,000 this year. And the good news for consumers is that complaints are being taken seriously; in a recent case, an online pharmacy that sold details of more than 20,000 customers to marketing companies was fined £130,000.

For companies, however, it’s a worry as increasingly data protection principles are being challenged and the lines are being drawn around what constitutes compliance.What is clear, says Barter, is that “in the modern world terms and conditions are not fit for purpose.”

In the modern world, terms and conditions are not fit for purpose

Against this backdrop, here are some recommendations:

• Conduct a privacy impact assessment  
• If you are relying on consent, for example, make sure you have got it from your customers and in the right way
• Engage in a way that resonates with the modern consumer
• Make your privacy policy interactive; video could work well. Use pop ups. Given that few people read T&Cs this is particularly important if your data usage is intrusive. 
• Think creatively about how to educate your customers.
• Don’t underestimate the privacy concerns of a younger audience! The ICO is providing resources for school to get privacy issues into the curriculum
• Ensure that your consumers are in control